INTERNATIONAL NEWS
regions in South Africa. Awards are
made in the following categories:
Diamond (which represents the highest rating), Gold, Silver and Bronze
Arrow Awards. The NWU Vaal was
awarded a Diamond Arrow Award in
the category: Higher Education Institutions.
against the following criteria: enhancement of economic growth, levels of management expertise, implementation of corporate governance,
brand awareness and the levels of
perceived innovation.
* The Quest Conference Estate, a
business unit of the NWU Vaal, received a Bronze Arrow in the category for convention centres.
The purpose of the annual PMR
survey is to benchmark levels of
management expertise, enance the
implementation of responsible corporate governance and heighten
levels of innovation. More than 2 000
nominations were sourced and companies and institutions were rated
NWU opens up for international evaluation
Annette Willemse
The internationally-led panel that the university has invited to evaluate the NWU has started their formal evaluation of the NWU.
The panel arrived on Friday, 17 January, and had their
first evaluation session at the Institutional Office on Monday, followed by visits to the Potchefstroom Campus
and Vaal Triangle Campus on Tuesday and Mafikeng
Campus on Wednesday.
The group of seven members is tasked to evaluate the
NWU on two major issues: (i) the extent to which the
initial merger objectives had been accomplished, and (ii)
the extent to which the NWU’s mission statement had
been realised.
The panel will hold seventeen panel sessions with various stakeholders which include amongst others institutional
management,
management of the various
campuses, academics, student leaders, regional political and community leaders.
They will focus especially
on teaching-learning, research, implementation of
expertise, human capital,
transformation,
finances
and infrastructure.
The final report will also be
made public. It will coincide
with the festivities for the
10-year anniversary of the
merger.
Dr Theuns Eloff, vice-chancellor says it is definitely
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not a general practice for a university to do this kind of
evaluation. “I do not know of other universities that have
conducted similar evaluation projects.
“In our case, it is an excellent opportunity to give Prof
Dan Kgwadi and his team an overview of the challenges
that lies ahead for the NWU” he said.
* The panel consist of international and South African
members. They are at the back Mr Ian Bunting, Centre
for Higher Education Transformation, Dr Barney Pityana, former vice-chancellor of Unisa, Dr Tobern Rasmussen, Denmark and Dr Nico Cloete, Centre for Higher
Education Transformation. In front are Prof Lynn Meek,
Australia, Prof Frans van Vught, Netherlands (chairperson), and Prof Mala Singh, former member of the Higher
Education Quality Committee and Council for Higher
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